Tuesday, December 21, 2010

Dr. Seuss was an amazing individual. He's very well known for his children's books, but he is also known for some of his great quotes. So many individuals favor his sentence revolving around when you know when you are in love.

"You know when you're in love when you can't fall asleep because realty is finally better than your dreams" - Dr. Seuss

I also enjoy his quote:

"Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind" - Dr. Seuss

And, in a less serrious tone:

"I am Sam, Sam I am. I will not eat green eggs and ham" - Dr. Seuss

I think Sleeping Beauty may enjoy that last one also. I intend on focusing on the first quote I mentioned. I should be trying to keep this post short, because as it happens ever so often I only get to posting once it is later at night and I need to get some sleep. Last post, I tired to keep the word count short. I forget the numeric value however when I put it into Microsoft Word it has six pages at the default text values.

To break this quote down quickly; it is stating that if you are in love you will have trouble sleeping. This is because your reality is better than anything you may dream up. I think this is an overstatement. If not there is a chance that Dr. Seuss simply had a phenomenal reality, a difficulty grasping reality, or dull dreams.

This romanticized ideal would be nice, but I don't think it is necessarily accurate. There are many other events that may stop you from sleeping, such as excitement over what is going to happen the next day. I think Christmas is something that many people will be able to identify with. Christmas Eve, everyone is getting excited about the morning. Once night comes around it seams to drag out because the morning refuses to come. Everyone is simply too excited to sleep. This is not because their reality is better than their dreams; just because they are anxious.

Love should not cause anxiety, it should bring a peace to you. It should bring you to sleep easier with the thought that the person you hold closest to your metaphoric-emotional heart will be there for you in the morning.

I love sleep, well the idea of it. What happens during your sleep is very interesting if you read into it. I've spent a fair amount of time reading about sleeping and dreaming, and I believe that dreams are fairly infinite in their ability to impress and create. A dream may not be able to produce a feeling of love that is greater than in reality, however it may be able to create a better reality.

Your brain is capable of synthesizing anything really. All it needs is a base knowledge and I think it is very easy to explain how infinitive that base knowledge is. Imagine anything. Imagine anything phenomenal, amazing, anything. If you can imagine it, imagine how much your brain could subconsciously expand that into a dream?

With mental time dilation occurring during dreams, think of how immense this dream could be. It just takes an idea to give you a night of smiles as you slumber.

With that being said, I would love to be able to tell this to the Dr. himself. Not entirely for the I'm-Right-and-you're-not factor, but just to see how he would answer. He had a brilliant mind. Misfortunately he is no longer with us, and my sister's mention towards necromancy was not very welcomed in my mind.

"You know when you're in love when you can't fall asleep because reality is finally better than your dreams" - Dr. Seuss

"You know you could be in love, when the thought of someone keeps you from sleeping and all you wish to do is sleep so that the next day with them will come by sooner" - Bugworlds

Not perfectly worded, and I included the 'could be' because you could replace love with many terms. Love; like; attraction; desire; lust.

Well that was exciting. Onto more reading of God's Debris. See my previous posts regarding this book for information, or just click the link and start reading yourself. I think reading the previous posts for information about the book, the book, then my reply to the book and parts of it may be the best order to approach this.

I have noticed the further I read into this, the less I have to say about it. The less I have to say about it, that is notable enough for me to post it here atleast. Perhaps I am just getting more into it and thinking about replying to it less; perhaps I am finding less points to reply to. None-the-less I will try to put one or two points in here.

How moderately embarrassing. It appears I've gotten myself confused regarding what page I'm on. I guess I will simply reread some of this.

" 'Religions are like different maps whose routes all lead to the collective good of society' " (32)

I would like to apply this concept not to various religions, but to those who are not necessarily pleasant people due to a lack of religion. I have experienced many encounters with people who will do something because they see no fault in it. They believe that if they do not believe in any religion that refines their actions, they may do however they please. Why not be a good, kind person; even in the absence of religion?

" 'Has anyone ever told you to 'be yourself'?' "

Yes (that was odd, I went to type out yes and stroke the keys of my keyboard perfectly to type 'this'), this has happened (wait.. the next word I wanted to type was this.. I see..) to me many times. I've wondered if who I was at the moment, was not really me? But then I realized that it had to be. There was no way that the person I was, was not myself. If by 'being myself' meant not doing what others wanted me to do so, wouldn't doing what others tell me to do so be 'myself' because I choose to go through with the actions and events? The dialog after this line follows a similar idea to this. I'm enjoying how I tend to react the same way that is written.

This reminds me of the line 'a picture is worth a thousand words' and it makes me think that there is a chance most pictures are worth much more than that. Through essays and blogging (and blogging my essays), I have found that 1000 words is not all that many. I occasionally get 3000-4000 word posts. This quote should be refined to 'a picture is worth ten thousand words, give or take nine thousand.' Ooh, I like that. It's going to my Twitter.

I am now on page 38, and I have decided to only reply to what really leaps out at me and drives me to come back to this tab. I want to read a largish portion of this book, spell check, then get some sleep.

" 'Your question reveals your bias for a binary world' " (39)

Just seconds after saying I was going to slow down on replies, I read this. I love the way that is stated, a binary world. It is referring to everything in the world being real or imagined. The way we look at things are very binary. Black and white, right and wrong, real or fake, yes or no, one or two.

The drive that causes us to create the Internet is communication, the sharing of ideas, the ability to be connected to eachother, the desire to create. These could all be considered to be 'programmed' into our instincts. Around this quote it states "in the 1990s investors threw money at any Internet company that asked for it" (52). It is a reply to a comment regarding Capitalism, and how the Internet may be only put in place so that money may be made off of it. The Internet breaks the idea of Capitalism.

If you want something to be done, if you want something to be big and for it to be connected to many people. If you want an idea to spread and be shared, how do you go about doing so? The answer is simple. Put it on the Internet, have people work on it and don't pay them.

Well, putting it that way makes it sound a bit odd but it's just a different perspective on getting people to volunteer. If you look about the Internet you are going to find many very successful, very large projects that are worked on all for free.

If you pay someone to do something, they are likely to get the job done if they want to or not. If someone wants to do something, they will do it if they are payed or not. If someone finds something interesting, they are prone to putting their time and effort into it even if the only personal gain is the fact they did it and they enjoyed doing so. The Internet is huge, and if you have an idea someone will like it. If it is resonable you will be able to find someone, or many people for that matter, to help develop the idea. They will do so for free, because they will enjoy the idea and enjoy working around it.

Still don't beleive me?

Youtube: has all its videos uploaded for free.

Facebook: largest social networking site, which is free to use.

Wikipedia: largest online encyclopedia (even if it may not be considered legitimate), with all the information submit by users for free.

Wikileaks: check my previous post about wikileaks to find out more about this, but it is a site where people have uploaded leaked, classified documents, for free.

Google: most popular search engine, that may be used (along with several other features from the Google corporation, possibly the most successful organization in the world) for free

Blogger: or blogspot, what ever it is. It is owned by Google by the way, and it is free to use.

Linux: I don't know how to describe this in the same format as the others, but if you want an Operating System on your computer that (in several opinions, I have never used one) is better than a Mac or Windows OS that you must pay for? Go download a Linux OS off the Linux website, for free of course.

I can think of a few more examples of this, but what do these all have in common? There is something about it, that is free. People have put several hundred hours into making most of these, if not using them. The huge majority of this had been done for free.

Saturday, December 18, 2010

Last night, from a little bit before 1:00AM (I think), to 10:30AM, was my first sleep for an estimated 40 hours. Maybe 41. It was.. interesting? I woke up, went to school, got home, awake through the night, next day of school, rested a bit, socialized, slept.

Why you may ask? Well I wouldn't be surprised if several of my friends wouldn't ask why though I'm sure a few of my readers are not my friends so I will tell the world.

Before I get too far, I promised my girlfriend a better title than 'my girlfriend' on my blog. She will now be referred to the alias, Sleeping Beauty. She has a habit of falling asleep, and I'm sure the rest of the name is very self explanatory; though perhaps a bit limiting. Words tend to do that, one word never has the texture to describe everything I wish to say.

First off I have wanted to go to school after not sleeping for a night, and Friday was the last day of school until my two week Winter break. I figured I was not doing anything of importance at school, so I would try for it then.

At the moment I'm kind of tired again, and I'm sure my body wants to catch up on sleep, so I am going to try to keep this shortish.

--For those who don't care about Minecraft, read a sentence or two and then scroll down until you find the next break.

I'll skip over my first day of school I mentioned, it was not very memorable for I can't remember anything special about it. Around 11:30 I decided I wanted to see if I could get my Minecraft game updated so I could connect to my friends server. I had received details about it two days before but had not had a chance to try it out yet. After two attempts it was good to go and I was online with Asian, Batman, and Gambo (Batman and Gambo are new to my posts, and have not been mentioned before, they are great though Batman's alias may not fit perhaps.. it's good enough for now). I ventured around, and viewed their buildings. I was amazed by Batman's tower, however a bit less amazed at everything when I found out Asian had been giving out items with his moderator abilities. I wished to play the game as legitimately as I could, however when I was offered two diamond shovels and a diamond pick after announcing I was going to cut down a hill (yes, a hill.. a couple thousand brick hill in one sitting. It was great, I have so many pieces of dirt to work with now) I didn't hesitate to say, "oh, just this once." Since then I have not been given any items, except some gold bricks that I was given in mockery. One out of three of them were thrown down into a well.

The first thing I did was found a cleared area by Batman's larger castle and decided the hill beside it was in the way a bit so I took it down piece by piece. From there I planted fort or so trees to be the base of my tree foret. Some time went by before they grew, and in the time I waited I began to dig my cave but details on that will be later. After it grew, I cleared off the tops of the trees, and put ladders into the tops of the trees. It didn't turn out the way I wanted it to do so, so I might just try again some time. Plant some more trees, less this time to make for less of a project. There were then torches put on top of the trees to give some light, and some of the dirt I had obtained created a second level where I put some trees on. It isn't that great looking, but the idea was solid.

My cave started as a small house I started to put together, but then I decided I would tunnel with it. In the main room I put a toolbox, because they are useful. The floor is made of planks, the rest is stone and a back wall of cobblestone. To the right of the door is a tunnel that extends into the hill and then drops in two directions. The first drop took me to a small underwater pool. It was not that exciting so the second one tunneled straight down until it hit a cave. The cave was not very exciting but worth a little bit of exploring before discovering it lacked what I was looking for and much room. A second tunnel was made off of this one that descended down exceptionally further. I don't know why I stopped where I did, but I did.

I was no where near cave, but I continued to expand the area I found into a larger and larger room until I found a natural cave with some water in it (this world has a lot of caves with water). This didn't catch my interest so I made a tunnel going into one of the walls and it ran into a huge deposit of redstone, diamond, gold, and coal. I was only after coal in the first place so I didn't have the picks needed to obtain the precious metals. The next night I grabbed them then went to sleep.

This took a few hours, however as I was in the cave I had also began plans on a second large building. I cleared a huge area of forest, cutting the wood out then burning the leaves. The ground was made level with aid of my huge stock pile of dirt, and then trees were planted with cobblestone around the base of each.. just so they looked nice. A wall has been constructed around the trees and I will soon make a ceiling out of glass then build my castle on top of the glass. It may not be taller than Batman's, however it will be larger.

--Minecraft is over

During this, I found three in the morning to be the hardest to be awake. After that around seven and eight in the morning were really difficult to get through. I think this may be because I wake up at that time for school usualy.

I was the first to my bus stop, which was a great surprise for the second person to get there. I usualy get to the bus just as it is leaving, so it was odd being the first individual there.

Upon getting to school a few friends were teaching a couple other friends how to play poker. We played three rounds of Texas Hold'em. I won all the cookies, then left not wanting cookies. Right after leaving I was given a cookie by a friend, who had constructed them for the last day. They were good, definitely brought my blood sugar up for a few minutes. Then I found Sleeping Beauty in the library and sat on the ground beside her (no chairs left) for a minute or two before the bell went.

First class was Hell. I thought I had Math last, but it turned out Math class was first block. I don't remember what we did, I think I spent a large amount of time in that class almost asleep, then realizing I was almost asleep. This caused my body to twitch sometimes, I didn't like it. At the end we were given a few minutes to work, but I didn't want to. I wish the teacher continued speaking so I had to put no more effort into anything more than what I was at the time: pressing buttons into my calculator in case she called on me to answer a question about the example on the board. I don't think I would of gotten it correct.

Second block was great. We watched the new Pixar film, Despicable Me. I didn't like it all that much, but it was decent. I don't think being more awake would of helped me like it more, it just didn't appeal to me all that much. There was on one song that played a few times in it though, I enjoyed that song. My favorite scene in that movie featured a close up of a ping-pong ball, as it was in mid flight and in slow motion. The ball had so much detail, there were little scratches and marks on it making it look so real. I enjoyed it, but then it was gone and soon after that there was a predictable explosion. The explosion was caused by, of course, a large ray gun pulled out of the main character's pocket. The movie as a whole was very predictable, and I could of lived without it I think.

Lunch was a bit slow, but I talked to friends and it ended. I was not all that hungry at the time, which is odd considering I'm usualy starving by then.

Third blocked was taught by the same teacher as second. I had Digital Media second block, by the way. Instead of going to Psychology I found my teacher greeting people as they entered the class. I asked if we were watching the same movie, and he said we were. I asked if I could visit friends in free block, and he said it was okay even before I finished speaking my question I think. On the way to the cafeteria, where I expected to find people, I was intercepted by Asian who had free block then. He was on his way to Katvolver's house, so I joined him along with a few other people.

I was ditched initially, but ran to the house only to find out everyone drove because I hesitated too long to join them. Oh well, I got there. We did chin-ups on his chin up bar, prank called some people, and had some coffee. The coffee was my first caffeine of that awake session, and it was great. After fifty minutes I realized I had to leave to get to last block.

English class was great. I didn't really do all that much work, just took notes. My group won the TGIF, a competition we have every Friday, so we won the class's stuffed bear. It is very soft, and makes for a great pillow. I used it as a pillow, not because I was tired however it was soft.

We are starting to read the book 1984, I'm expected to have the first chapter finished at the end of the two weeks. I hope I don't put it off too long, and I see no reason for me to do so. The book looks great, it has great reviews, the only thing I fear about it is the class work revolving around it. In particular class discussions, which often end up being a big, "uhh, so I don't understand this..." session. I'm afraid not everyone in my class is very illiterate at times, and to make it worse the majority of the students don't do work. I don't understand how they've managed to do so little, I find most of the work easy and almost enjoyable at times. The in-class work is good, and there are some great activities in the class. My favorite would have to be Group Seminars, where a few students who wish to discuss the book sit in the middle of the class and everyone takes notes on what they say. All three times we have done this I have sat in the middle and spoken to everyone, because talking about something is much better than notes. I end up discussing the books we read with a couple people in the class anyways.

At this point I was so hyped up. It was the last class on Friday, not to mention the last day before a large break from school. I was sleep deprived (not that it was noticeable) and had caffeine in my system. I was sitting with my friends, I asked if I could do so because it was the last day. Normally we sit in mostly arranged seating. If you know how to, it is possible to manipulate your seat a bit. When I sit with more than one of my friends I don't get much work done, but I don't care. They're great.

After school I took the bus that went directly to my house, and didn't feel tired. A bit groggy at times, but definitely not tired.

From four until six I was with only Sleeping Beauty, but this time it was my turn to rest. I took a break from life and tried to sleep for a couple hours. Between the presence of someone being close to me, conversation, and the television being on; I was unable to sleep.

Once dinner had been consumed, with little appetite still, we walked tenish blocks to the mall to hang out with friends. It was one of their birthdays, so I decided I would ignore the temptation to continue resting and be social. It was interesting, at times I was tired. For the majority of the time spent out, I wasn't though.

The terrible cold (well.. maybe not terrible. No one liked it) of -5 ish degrees celsius (just an estimate, I never did get to finding out what the actual temperature was) was refreshing but too much. I had been cold most of the day, and even with two hoodies on I was not happy with the temperature most of the time.

I did not realize it at the time, but the only time my sleep deprivation got to me must of been when I was walking with only one other friend, to meet up with the group we left to walk someone home. I saw a tire at the side of the road, but only once I was right beside it. Of Course it startled me. I thought it was a large black dog that was about to jump at me.

Around 72 hours of not sleeping, hallucinations are common. I think this was the closest I got to that, something catching the peripheral of my vision and me mistaking it for something attacking me. It happens to people when they are awake anyways.

At eleven I grabbed a ride with a friend and was dropped off a block away from my house. At this point, I was not tired at all. I was awake, fresh, a bit warmer, and ended up running the block with no difficulty.

Once I was settled in my house I began to slow down, went on Minecraft and talked with a couple people on Asian's server. I obtained the minerals I wanted, but at that time I was so tired it was ridiculous. I fell asleep within ten or twenty minutes.

Would I do this again? Yes, definitely. I want to be able to say I've been awake for a solid 48 hours. I think I will do this some time over the break; maybe for New years. This will reset my sleeping pattern maybe, so I will be waking up at the correct time the for school.

Sleep deprivation is an odd occurrence. There are so many studies on sleep, so much to know about sleep. I have read a fair amount around the topic and I would say I am relatively knowledgeable in it. What happens to you when you're sleep deprived? I notice a few things are different;

What I am thinking about is fairly straight forward. My thoughts feel less.. crowded? It is as if there is less static in my mind, or atleast my thoughts are more vivid. My vision may do this, but not always. My hearing often will become more sharp. It is very similar to something I described in my Vipassana post.

My body tends to feel week, but not always drowsy. It is as if my muscles are putting less effort into many activities. If I wanted to lift something that I normally could, there would be no more more less difficulty in doing so, but walking feels a bit different. I feel light, yet not enough to make it easy to walk. I'm not sure how to describe this.

As for the hallucinations that many people talk about when sleep depravation comes up in conversation, I have already explaned the closest I was to that. It may of not been anything close to a halusination really.

Thursday, December 16, 2010

I can't say I'm picking up where I dropped off, just with what ever thoughts that occur to me at the moment. I'm not terribly inspired to write, however I decided I should probably get this done. My Psychology class has presented me with eight assignments, each of which I will need to put together 500-1000 words. I usually hand in 1000-2000 word assignments though. I have a couple of them done, but at the moment I'm going to be presented with 8000ish words to type.

Wikileaks is one of them, so I would like to finish my thoughts on this site. If I don't have time durring this extended flex block (it is extended due to the Fine Arts presentation that started at the beginning of lunch. It is going into flex which has been moved to the block directly after lunch; changing up the schedule for the rest of my classes today).

I'm jumping back to the mirror sites. A mirror site is a website that is the exact same as another site. In this case, Wikileaks has several mirrors due to the original being blocked. This means all the files and data have been copied, meaning anyone could copy these.

I have no doubt at all that every government in the world has downloaded every file off Wikileaks. No government is going to be presented with all that information and turn it down. No government is going to say it is unmoral to take that information. I think it is a great idea for them, it may not be good for everyone else but for the governments that have done this I have to congratulate them for doing so. It is a smart move.

Now that every government in the world has a copy of the information that has been leaked, what will happen? I think this could start a war.

Some of the information that has been posted, has been espionage documents. There have been instructions on how to great some dangerous weapons released also (I believe I wrote a bit about this in my last post, so I will not go into detail). These espionage documents have opinions on various leaders and high ranking officials around the world; many of them are not very friendly. Now everyone in the world has access to a private opinion, even if it is with an organization of a government. I think this is where this has gone too far (well one of a few places).

This could start wars. This could result in the killing of several hundred people.

When should information be free? Should all information be free? Should all information that has been released to the public, stay in the public domain? When should information be stopped? When should public safety and the personal concern of an individual make censorship okay? When is censorship okay? So many questions, I think I'll answer a couple.

Wikileaks is largely based off of the idea of Free Speech. It is based in Sweden due to their amazing free speech laws, something that I will allow my readers to look into themselves. I believe that free speech should have more than just the phrase, "An individual has the right to have free speech." There needs to be limitations.

I think there should be an amendment, or something like that. I know amendments may not help me all that much, living in Canada and all, although it wouldn't hurt. If there could be some worldwide system, well that would be great.

We should have free speech within reason. If free speech is causing harm to individuals, to peoples, and to organizations it should be limited in some sort. I'm not certain on what the actual constitutional statement says, but Wikileaks is going to be remembered for ever (well even longer than it will anyways because it may be remembered for ever anyways) when it causes an amendment to be made.

With great power comes great responsibility, and knowledge is power. If you have great knowledge, you should have the responsibility to use it properly. If the information that is being leaked by Wikileaks is causing harm, then it compromises all the information. It is still all legitimate, however I think it needs to be refined. It's fine that Wikileaks has this information, but censorship is not all that bad perhaps?

Most think of censorship as the government, the man, stopping us from knowing what would be undesirable according to the government. Some censorship, the majority of it (or so I would guess) is there to protect us. There is some information we do not need to know.

Wednesday, December 15, 2010

In my Digital Media class, and a bit in Psychology, we have been looking into Wikileaks. It has been a good time, but it seems that not everyone understands it as well as they could. A little bit of reading would go a long way, but I understand how not everyone is interested in it.

But should they? Wikileaks seems to be gaining momentum, and has outraged the Internet. It has brought up a lot of controversy.

So for all of you who don't know, Wikileaks is an organization that has been posting classified documents from countries all around the world on the Internet for all to see. I am uncertain on how they have obtained most of these documents. I believe they may be leaked by moles within the governments that have created documents that have been posted. They are summit and a large amount of effort is put into keeping the identities of the suppliers.

The main office is located in Sweden, due to Swedish laws supporting free speak much more than most countries. This allows them to have their server, without worrying about hiding IP addresses. Much of the rest of the world may not like this organization, but they cannot shut them down directly; for now at least.

The main site has been shut down, or atleast blocked in several countries. This has lead to mirror sites being created. The danger in these is anyone could create one of these mirror sites in theory and post information of which is not true. The original organization does what they can to make sure the information is legitimate however not everyone may have the morals to do so.

False information may of gotten through anyways. The information may of been leaked by governments on purpose. One of the first dangers, or at least one of the first that I am going to address is within false information. I'm quite certain all the governments in the world have been keeping tabs on Wikileaks, and if they have not been doing so in the past few years before the site went viral they are now. What would stop a government from creating an 'official document' within itself, and then having it leaked on purpose?

The media is an important aspect of society, however it may not be as powerful as people have thought in the past. It has been said that Wikileaks has posted more than all of the media has in the past. The most powerful leaked information website ever could have propaganda in it. It could have lies, and it has become far too powerful to have mis-truths in it.

Although I'm fairly confident this is not the biggest worry to worry about. This has created a second look at free speech, and the concept of what information should be in the public domain.

If information has made its way out into the public, should it be there for everyone? This is my first discrepancy with Wikileaks. The information and documents have been classified for a reason. I can see there to be two reasons for classification; to protect the public, or to cover up something the government has done.

If something is released and it is hidden to protect the public, it is because the information could cause direct harm (such as information on how to make weapons) or it could be upsetting. I'm fine with not knowing what's happening in a war situation. I'm fine with not knowing of executions that NGO's (well that may be an incorrect term, however I'm using it in terms of an organization not limited by a government) have gone through with unjustly.

As for cover ups, I think they need to be exposed. Perhaps not all of them should, but it is good for the government to be honest. If the information is going to be put out anyways, perhaps it would be best for governments to be honest and accountable in the first place instead of trying to explain why they covered something up.

That's funny, a completely honest government? It sounds like a proper anarchy.

Anarchy is gaining popularity again. The traditional 'anarchist rebellious anti-authoritarian individual' stereotype is fading away a bit as more people realize how a proper anarchy is a good thing. The problem with society is a proper anarchy is not possible. I'll go into this some other time.

The anarchy I will go into revolves around the Internet, the battle ground for Wikileaks and the free speech-information battle. The government is not able to sensor the Internet the way they can sensor the media. I'm not sure where I'm going with this. Japanese Student Life distracted me with spotted jellyfish.

Sunday, December 12, 2010

On the other hand, math class is good for philosophical thought; then needing to race the white board eraser to catch up on notes.

Yes, I did remove the word 'it' on purpose.

How sure can you be about something? How unsure can you be? This was the topic of a conversation that lead me to me believing I was correct and my conversational partner not admitting I was right; or atleast this is how I view the events. I'm sure she may disagree, or perhaps just not admit she agrees.

My Math teacher has given me the answer to this, or atleast agreed with me but gave me a numeral value to assign to it. My opinion was you could not be more than 100% sure. If you are 100% sure about something, then you believe it will happen. If you are, lets say, a bazillion percent sure of something, you are still only sure that this event will happen. Lets look at this in terms of probability for a moment.

If you are 100% sure, your probability is 1. It will happen. If you are more than one hundred percent sure, it will still happen. There is no being more guaranteed than it will, without question happen. Therefor, your probability is also only 1.

The same goes for uncertainty. You can be 0% certain, and know a given event will not happen. If you are -96% sure, or any other negative number, your certainty is still stating it will not happen. Your certainty is 0%, or 0 chance.

This leads to my Math teacher's explanation. When probability was being introduced she said proved, through numbers, that probability exists within 0 And just because I thought of this... >_ is greater than or equal to. >_> is not greater than or equal to or greater than. It is mild frustration or displeasure.

I feel like that was all stated poorly. Probability can be expressed in a percent of 0% to 100%. There is no less than 0%, there is no greater than 100%. These percentages could also be considered to be 0 (0%) and 1 (100%). Probability, is the same as certainty. You cannot be one billion percent sure about something.

Lets have a rough topic transition and start flipping coins. Lets say you flip a coin twice. Your chances are 1/4 that you will get heads twice in a row. This is due to your first flip having two possibilities, heads or tails. If it is heads and you flip the coin again then it has two possibilities again. You could have HH, or HT. The same goes for if the first flip is a T (tails, as you may of guessed), and the second flip could be H or T. This leaves you with the four possible situations of HH, HT, TH, TT.

This is so much easier to explain graphically, but I don't have the time to do so at the moment.

What I would like to note in this, is the second flip still has an equal chance of being a H or a T. The first flip has a 1/2 chance, the second has a 1/2 chance, the billionth flip will have a 1/2 chance. By the time you reach a bazillion flips though, you will have an astronomical number of possibilities of which I don't want to figure out how many there are. Is bazillion even a proper number? Anyways, getting a desired number of 'wins,' or H's in a row becomes more unlikely the more desired wins there are. Each event has the same probability.

How does this size up to sports however? I feel very clever, using the phrase win as foreshadowing, even if the shadow was only cast over twenty-six words until the key phrase of sports was used. This also relates to gambling, especially if the cards are replaced and/or shuffled each time.

Lets say you're playing soccer, and you win one game. Your chances of winning the next game are just as likely, however your chances of winning two games in a row are half of winning just one (assuming the teams are evenly matched). This may seem a bit contradictory but I feel as if I have explained the mechanics behind this well enough. This situation is even more accurate for some gambling games, such as rolling dice. There is (assuming) no skill in rolling dice, and the number will be random. Each number should be just as likely as any other number to be the outcome (due to the sum of each opposite side of the dice adding up to seven; hence the idea of an evenly balanced dice; hence the idea of a weighed dice, or a dice that is more likely to land on a certain number), so each roll, or event, will have an equal chance of happening. Getting the same number twice has a 1/6 chance (first roll does not matter what number, second roll has a 1 in 6 chance of matching up to the first), and getting a desired number twice in a row has a 1/36 chance (1 in 6 times 1 in 6, or (1/6)x(1/6)=1/36).

With this said, this should mean if you are on a 'winning streak' that probability should be considered. You should not do anything different (still assuming each team is equally skilled), because your chances of winning the next game is the same as winning the last.

But in sports, such as soccer, each team is not equal. There are several variables that must be considered, a very influencing variable being skill. If you are winning a series of games, chances are you are going to continue to win that series because clearly you are doing something right.

Well that's kind of lame, now that I'm finished putting all of this idea together this concept does not seem all that great or worth sharing. This was another idea that occurred to me several years ago but it was not until recently that I was able to expand on it a bit and tell everyone who doesn't care about it. Now that I am done, I realize the time and how I have Act IV of The Crucible to read before I go to sleep. I'm rather tired now.

This was also my first real entry into my Idea Book that I received from Vortex. Speaking of aliases, next post I may be introducing, or reintroducing, a new alias. I almost wish I could end this like the last few seconds of each Pokémon episode.

Tune in next post to join Bugwords and the ramblings of his mind as he sets forth to defeat the next thought worth sharing to the world. > To be continued.

> Bugworlds.

Ah great, now I have the Pokémon theme song stuck in my head. Today I had a mind blowing moment. A reoccuring line the the theme song is "Gotta catch them all" or "gotta cattchum all" and the main character of the show is Ash Ketchum... Woah.

I had a great weakened. It was great. The weakend that I had, was full of great. It isn't quite over, it well end once I start doing my homework.

Back to reading God's Debris for a few minutes, until my girlfriend comes around to my house. Then we are going for an early Christmas Dinner.

" 'Where is your free will?' the old man asked. 'is it part of your brain, or does it eminate from someplace outside your body and somehow control your actions?' " (23)

This reminds me of Is There Life After Death by Anthony Peake. Somewhere within that book it asks a question about where is conciousness located? Also, does conciousness make you alive and make your brian work, or does your brain working and the fact you are alive make your conciousness?

" 'At some level of conciousness, everyone knows that the odds of picking the true religion - if such a thing exits - are nil' " (30)

This is arguable, however I like the way this is stated. The concept of 'picking' a religion. For many they do not pick, they are raised in a religion. For many they are born into a religion lacking living situation, or leave the religion they are born into. From there they have the oportunity to 'pick' a religion. Some religions are much more popular than others, many are if not have died out. The more favorable religions, the religions that offer the most benifits, seem to be the most popular.

Thursday, December 9, 2010

My title is out of order, again. Such poor parallel structure, and it is so easy to fix. I wonder why I leave it as it is?

In my Math class, we have started a unit on probability. It also has some permutation and combination work, which I found rather easy at first and perhaps even enjoyable. I think that was due to its ease. Most of it has presented itself to be common sense or knowledge I have already obtained. I'm almost looking forward for it to become more difficult so I may be able to still do it without any problem. If there is difficulty in it, I am very willing to work at this topic until it becomes less difficult and more routine.

Anyways, my Math teacher, who I am beginning to approve of more and more as the class flies by, has a wonderful vocabulary and set of phrases that she uses. I write some of the phrases down in my Idea Book often and she inspired me to put my first real entry into my idea book. It revolves around probability, and I will be putting it on my Blog soon (or so I plan).

Also, TheUnromantic has inspired me to go back to my Blog once again. I'm sure my writing two essays for my classes (two more are soon to come) helped a bit, but the main reason why I am putting this post here is because of her. During Psychology/Philosophy/Theology/Sociology Class (well, it's called Psychology but there is so much more to it; I love it) we were given forty-five minutes to write replies. I have abandoned much of my hand writing for that class, despite my decision to avoid typing assignments which came about at the beginning of the class, and gone to a more electronic method of working. This means the time I'm given in class can (somewhat) be used in conversation more responsibility if I was planning on just writing. During the time given I read something we were given a few weeks ago and I should probably of had finished reading shortly after we were given it. I also had a great conversation with TheUnromantic about religion, government, a couple people appeared in our conversing, and sleep. What I was reading about was revolving around sleep, and it fit very well into our conversation.

We actually started to speak about sleeping before I started to read (I think), and then as I read much of the information I ran into was at a great time to aid the conversation. I love it when that happens. I probably didn't get as much reading done as I could, but I can do that outside of class. Having conversations that are that great don't always happen without the aid of the education system. I'm sure they could happen, but being forced into social situations is great.

Do you ever notice reoccurring themes in life? I have, and I do very frequently. If anything I have been noticing themes and coincidence's more and more often. I have already mentioned how I started to talk about sleep, then I started to read about it. In Math class we have just started probability, and you would never guess what I ran into; but you will have to wait a bit longer.

In my great conversation with TheUnromantic, a book who someone we both know is reading, also appeared in our conversation. I brought it up, for it was mentioned on his blog. I am tempted to link to it, but I think I will wait for my next post about this book to do so. It will put a little bit of a push for me to write my next post, and I decided he will get his link later. No reason around it, just because I have the free will to do so (Oh, I hope some of my readers will understand and argue this. Once they run into what I am referencing to they will smile.. just a little at the least; that is if they don't already know what it is I am referring to).

Woah! Guess who was mentioned in the reading I was doing in Psychology today? It was Scott Adams. That's the third time his name, or his comic strip, has come up today. I can't say I've spoken about him or his comics, or even thought about him or his comics, for a long time. There use to be a cartoon featuring Dilbert, but I was not permitted to watch it. I'm rather curious to view it now, or atleast the comics. I'm sure I will get to the comics after I read this book.

Reoccurring themes in my life? Yes, I am sure I can always find a couple that have happened recently if I look for them. Sometimes I don't need to look for them, or perhaps I have just become tuned to look for them without doing so consciously.

So this is the reason why this post has come to be, this book. It is described to be a "132-page thought experiment wrapped in a fictional story" (Adams; page 9 of PDF file, not numbered) which "For maximum enjoyment, [should be] share[d] ... with a smart friend and then discuss[ed] ... while enjoying a tasty beverage" (11 of PDF file, numbered as XI).

Please Note: I will be referencing quotes to pages as they appear at the bottom of each page, as they would in the book from here on in. The first few pages are not all titled, or titled with a modern number but rather a Greek number. I'm rather impressed with my quote integration. I'll have to thank my English teacher for this. She has done a great job at teaching us how to integrate quotes, however we have never had to deal with quoting pages that are not marked traditionally. I hope to send this post to her actually. I can also thank her for improving my grammar and punctuation, in exponential amounts compared to my previous years of English class. I'm sure it is far from perfect now, but I'm confident it is better than my first few posts. If you wish to take a look, I would love for you to do so. Back to why I wish to post this post. Now that I think of it, I've typed up a fair amount and I haven't even gotten to the full reason why it is here in the first place.

I figure what smarter friends do I have other than the ones I know in real life and interact with via the Internet. I'm not saying that the people who I don't interact with over the Internet are not smart, for so many of them are amazingly intelligent, however I beleive this will reach the people who I have mentioned and several other people who would appreciate it and whom I may not end up having a conversation with in person about this book. I would not be surprised if I did have a conversation with them regarding this book, our thoughts on it, and the thoughts I have posted here; but just in case I would like to put my thoughts into text here. It leaves my thoughts open for everyone to read and think about themselves.

The line that sent an unresitable urge to come to Blogger and share my thoughts was this line quote:

" 'If you toss a coin a thousand times, how often will it come up heads?' " (6)

Immediately I thought of the same reply as what is presented by the character who is being questioned: " 'About fifty percent of the time" (6). The numeric value of this, about five-hundred, never occurred to me. Rather I thought about what we had been doing in Math class. Illustrations of various situations revolving around chance (dice, coins, and tops mostly). You start with your base situation, and then branch it out to show every possible situation and the chances of these situations occurring (also allowing you to see the situations that could occur with various restrictions). As this thought was conjured up I realized how large the tree resembling illustration would be. There would be 2^1000 possible outcomes, each being a series of 1000 H's or T's, and then the number of H's in each. Nothing that could be done with paper, within reason. I'm sure it is possible... just no one would want to do this.

This was the last coincidence that I was planning on running into today (and most likely the last one I would find unless I viewed something on TV before I fell asleep) that would occur without it being shared with the world. It was a mind blowing moment, the kind that makes me want to tell everyone about. Misfortunately at the time between 11:30 PM and 12:00 AM, no one is really around to speak to. Even if they were they would only be one person. I want more than just one person to read about this. The ten or so people who will read this will suffice for now.

I intend on keeping a new post, or perhaps a slightly older post in it's editing stage, open in the background as I read God's Debis. I will be taking note of various things I find interesting, quoting them, and replying to them. According to the disclaimer, this is okay for me to do, so I will. If you want to read the disclaimer I am going to leave you to find it yourself. It's on the PDF file.

--Break here, or atleast I am from typing. I am going back to reading after typing out the last part of this post which will not be related to the current topic but I wish to put it here anyways. Sorry if I ruined your thought that all my posts are typed in chronological, or any sort of logical manner at times--

" 'The answer,' he said, 'is that the question has no why.' 'You could say that about anything.' 'No,' he replied ... 'every other question has an answer to why. Only probability is inexplicable.' " (7)

I can already see this is going to be very well written. If you are to look a few lines back, before this set of lines, you would discover that the elderly individual (the first speaker in this set of quotes) asks the simple question of "why?" I just wanted to point that out.

" 'Did you deliver the package, or did the package deliver you?' " (9)

I saw this to be a trick question, or atleast a question that is put in place to set something else up. I decided that it is a mutual effort of each, in theory. I know the package does not put any effort into moving or moving the individual moving it, but the address on it inspires the individual who is moving it to do so. This is the same result that the page seems to end with, unless the next page happens to have more insight into this statement. So far I can say the thoughts that have been presented are definitely different than my own, but several of them follow a thought process I can identify with. I beleive I am going to enjoy this more and more as I read it.

On page 12 I ran into the word Omnipotence, and found myself unsure of what it meant. A quick run to Google brought me to the page I have linked to. Links on that page brought me to Omniscience, Omnipresence, and Omnibenevolence. That last one brought me to The Problem Of Evil, and upon this I decided to not get sucked into the temptations of pressing just one more link on Wikipedia, filling my browser with pages that I would wish to read and never getting back to what I was doing. I initially related the word omnipotence to omnipresence, of which I was familiar with the definition. I was able to use my understanding of that word to get a makeshift idea of omnipotence, omniscience, and a bit of omnibenevolence (but much less this one compared to the others). If any of these words catch your attention, or if the concept of evil is attention holding, these links are here for your use. Enjoy.

" 'If God is omnipotent, wouldn't he know the future?' 'Sure' 'If God knows what the future holds, then all our choices are already made, aren't they? Free will must be an illusion.' " (12)

This slight paradox occurred to me several years ago. I enjoy reading and writing bringing back memories and thoughts that I had once, and stored away in my brain to be used later. This idea is expanded, tested, and eventually leads to the next idea in a very fluid manner. It caught my attention enough to note it down here, although I am starting to become concerned that I will have too many side notes. I have no limit of room to type (far as I know), and if I did reach one I could just start a new post, but I am looking at time. I do not expect to finish this book in this sitting, for it is already one in the morning and I should try to get some sleep soon. I do not think I will get much reading of it done if I continue to make notes at the speed I am doing so now.

" 'In theory, yes. But a person with that much knowledge doesn't exist.' 'To be fair, you can only be sure that you don't know whether that person exists or not.' " (16)

So many paradoxes, I love it. I enjoy the concept presented also; regarding you cannot be sure of something, but you can be sure there is chance of it. I'm sure that could be worded better, and if anyone can do so please do. This quote would make more sense with more context, but it should be understandable when lacking. At the moment the topic is "someone very wise who knew how the world was designed without God's hand" (16), and I suspect he may be referencing to himself. I also would like to predict he is going to try to explain, or persuade his conversational partner, how this is the case.

" 'Omnipotence is trickier than it seams' " (17)

Yes, yes it is. To sum up the issues around omnipotence that have arisen so far; An omnipotent being must be able to see into the future. Therefor are the events in the future already set in place? If so, or if not, does free will exist? If the events are predetermined, does free will exist? Also, if an omnipotent being is able to look into the future, they can look into their own future. Therefor, are the actions of this being of free will? Perhaps, in order for free will to exist along side an omnipotent being, this being must turn a blind eye to the future. Perhaps this idea of future ignorance is not the case and free will is just an illusion given to us? Ofcourse, this omnipotent being being referred to is God, though I think at looking at this as a set of theoretical views surrounding an unnamed being will make it less biased to readers. In God's Debris the topic is about God.

" 'Consider magnets,' the old man said. 'If you hold two magnets near each other, they are attracted. Yet there is nothing material connecting them.' " (18)

" 'So you have a word for it. It's a 'field,' you say. But you can't get a handful of this thing for which you have a name. You can't fill a container with a magnetic field and take it with you. You can't cut it into pieces. You can't block it's power.' " (19)

This reminds me of Grade 2 science. We did a lab, experimenting with magnets and what would stop their magnetic properties. It turned out nothing we had would do so. I want to look into what particles are related to magnetism, if there are any. This is going into particle/wave physics, of which I know a fair amount of (by my opinion, comparing to my peers), but I've never looked into the forces involved with magnets. I think the solution to these statements, and some of the following statments, is to consider that magnatism does not exist in a physical state but as a force. It is a push or pull, just as if you were to push or pull a rope. You cannot physically bottle a force, but it is observable.

I enjoy how this is looking at aspects of reality that are outside of the three (perhaps four) states of matter. In Elementary School we are taught that matter exists as a solid, liquid, or gas (and I always remember it in that order). There is talk about plasma, but not all that much work or thought goes towards it. In Middle School and High School these concepts are hardened and explained in increasingly better detail and explanation. The concepts move away from solid, rote facts; and become more resembling explanations. I remember when being taught about solids, liquids, and gasses the teacher made a very small note at the end of the unit. It was not very emphasised, and I don't think it was in the curriculum, but it was still noted and discussed very shortly. There was a mention about what exists outside of these three, or four, states. Light and electricity stand out. I think there may of been a mention of forces, but I also think that may just be me unconsciously patching in information to memories that are not perfect. My grade eleven physics class inspired me to look into what these were a bit more, though by the time I had gotten to that class I had learned a small sum of information surrounding the topics already.

Ooh, shortly after the last quotes I put in there is mention of Einstein, scientific filler, and then string theory that I love so much.

" 'All we can do is 0bserve and record patterns' " (22)

I have nothing to reply to this last quote. I just like it. I'm using it as a slight marker to where I am at with my reading through this. It is page 22, or page 34 of the PDF file. I am becoming tired, my hand is becoming sore. Some sleep would be nice. Time to spell check, word count, then come back to this tomorrow. I wish I had flex block tomorrow so I could continue this then.

--Below this is what I mentioned I was typing in my last break--

Today I went to a local pizza shop with some friends after school, to get some pizza. It was great. After some confusion about how the menu worked, and how much pizza we would be able to get, a few of us pitched in and ordered two large half and half pizzas so everyone would get some of the toppings they wanted. I was the only vegaterian in the group, and was told I could have all of the vegaterian pizza. Half of a large pizza all to myself, it was great. I did lose one piece, but only because the six other people with me ate the other three halves in the time I ate seven out of the eight pieces I had at my disposal. I think I did quite well regarding speed, not that it's a competition or anything.

After this we went to the mall. In the process of getting there our group split apart, only to regroup and split apart a couple more times in the mall. I helped Z (I believe I have referenced to him before, he has no Blog that I may link to) find gifts for his family. 'Asian' (a friend's alias, as of just now, who has a Blog but I will ask him if he wishes to be linked to and what name he wishes to be referenced to over the Blogosphere) also helped.

I was told of some shoes that I thought looked nice, and were on sale for a great price. Normally thirty dollars, on sale for five? I wanted them. I rarely buy something because it's a good deal, but I thought I might as well. They were girl shoes, so I may not wish to wear them myself. The only pair left were also far too small for me. They did happen to be close to my girlfriend's shoe size though. They were bought as a half gift, for if she doesn 't like them (which I am fairly sure she does, and if not I am trying to persuade her to change her mind.. I wonder if she'll read this?) I can sell them to someone else for the amount I paid, perhaps more or less, just because I can. I might give them away, the might fit my sister. I really am not sure if they would or not. If I cannot find them a new home, I would be more than willing to put them on my shelf where I display all my treasures. They could sit there for a while until something to do with them showed up.

After shopping we walked to a grocery store that was near buy and got some energy drinks. I don't consume much caffeine (though my mother purchased decaffeinated instant coffee of which I am disappointed about), so the one can was enough to get me a bit hyped up. That in combination with exciting violent video games played over xBox Live was enough to get me rather wound up. I crashed a bit two hours ago but I feel much more alert again. I've been typing at this for some time, watching the time for the majority of the time. I decided I do not care when I go to sleep tonight. It is Friday tomorrow, I don't have anything important happening at the school that I can think of, and sleep will be sacrificed a little bit more than normal. I may not be able to sleep if I tried to right now anyways.

I have debated not sleeping for a full night then going to school in the morning for some time. I just haven't found a good day to do this. I think this night would be the best night possible, but I think some sleep would be good. I'm not sure how much sleep I will be getting over the weakened. At the moment, the best time that is coming up soon in my mind will be next Friday. It is the last day before Winter break, and my sleeping patterns will be pulled way off course due to the break anyways. I might as well start a little bit early. I doubt I will have much work on that day.

This is interesting, my left hand feels warm. Mostly in the palm and interior of it. I think it is from typing so much. I have not been doing as much typing as I normally would recently so I think the muscles may be not use to such a work out. It is an interesting feeling, I'm almost glad I am running out of thoughts I wish to press into the computer at the moment. I wouldn't want to get a sore hand, that's never fun.

Wednesday, December 8, 2010

An easy assignment for Digital Media, list as many plants as you can and then as many logos or brands as you can. I'm sure there will be far more brands compaired to plants. Infact, I'm sure I will have to cut off my logos list once it gets larger than my plants list.

I'm sure the purpious of this is to demonstrait there are more brands that we are familiar with compared to plants. We were told this, but soon as I read it I knew.

My hands are still cold after going for a run in the cold. It was nice, I'm becoming out of shape to the point where I dislike it so I am going to put some effort into fixing this problem.

At this point I ran out of names that come to mind, I can think of many types of flowers (dandilion) but I can't think of the name of (rose) all that many of them now that I think of it. I don't put all that much work into knowing the vegatation around me, let alown the vegatation not around me. I can think of several, several vegtable and fruit but I don't think that's what this list is looking for exactly (clover). If you havn't figured it out, the plants I am thinking of as I type this up (sunflower) are being put into (lilly) parenthasis.

So that makes an innitial 13 plants thought of, two questionables, and fruits/vegtables that were excluded.

This was really easy to do, phenominialy easy actualy. Not easier than I thought, just as easy as I thought it would be actualy. I have a few Internet/Computer's companies, some music, some comunications, tv/video/movies, a puzzle game, some long boarding companies, a few fast food resteraunts, a couple of watch companies, a roll playing game, some comics, some clothes, and an office supplies supplier. They are all related to eachother, or in a moment of hesiation I was able to pull something from my surrounding and start a new tangent.

In my Psychology class we have looked a little bit into Vipassana Meditation. It is based off a minimal ten day ordeal where you do not speak. I am not sure of the complete details of it, but this is what I know of it.

You spend ten days in a house, building, complex perhaps, with others who are partaking in this. No one speaks, and there is limited to no connection to the outside world. I suspect there may be no connection at all. There is also an absence of any sort of drugs and media. Everyone is expected to do what they can to help around the house without verbal communication. I always imagine an eerily clean house due to everyone cleaning a lot. I think I would in this situation, because I would have nothing else to do at times. I spend so much of my time in communication with the outside world, taking in media, and speaking a fair amount of time.

I think this would be a nice experience, from my short samples of it which I will speak of later on, and just from the description of it. I enjoy the quiet, and disconnecting from the world every once and a while must have its advantages. Would I be able to do it though? I think that is more of a quesionable idea.

I am sure I could go without speaking, I do that fairly frequently at my house unintentional. I am fairly introverted by nature, so cutting myself off from others would not be a difficulty. I think the hardest aspect would be time management. I may have homework, but I think I would get that done is much less than the six hours I am regularly at school. I may have more trouble getting it done, or atleast started though, due to the lack of school to inspire me. I could do chores, though I avoid them in most cases that I already find myself in. My down time could be spent reading (although I'm not sure if that is permitted), speedcubing (I'm sure I could get so much memorized in this time, but this may loose its interest even more than it already has), exercising to the best of my ability (I am not sure the area I would be able to use would be, or what may be in it), and there's always the fall back of writing. At the moment I'm learning to, well improving, my limited ability to write with my left hand. It's enjoyable. Anyways.. A large amount of time is spent in the actual act of mediation though. I think this would pass the time.

The mediation part of this relates to the simple sitting in the silence that would devour you already, and focusing on breathing. When you try to clear your mind of thoughts normally, you find yourself thinking of more. Try to think about nothing, do it right now. It won't take more than a moment. You'll find that it is impossible. In meditation the concept becomes much more possible.

During class we have done this a couple times, in short amounts of time. You sit however you wish (though I beleive if you were to go to one of the houses where this is practiced there may be more regulation) and focus on breathing. With your eyes closed you have nothing to look at, with the scilence you have nothing to listen to (although perfect scilence in a class room is not always possible and the guitar class is not all that far away so I can hear it sometimes). After not all that long, I may interrupt my relaxed state, but I realize my thoughts are quiet. It is quiet enjoyable.

Time also seems to move at a different speed than it normally would. If you look back a few posts you may find some of my thoughts on time, well a lot of my thoughts on time. To summerize one of my ramblings, time is subjective. It is invented in the mind of the preserver. When you are in such a relaxed state, time slips by very quickly. I've experienced this several times outside of my class, along with during our two to four minutes sessions in class. At first we went for two minutes, then three, then four. The first time it felt to be quite an amount of time as the act of sitting with my eyes closed, waiting to be told it was over. Once it was over though, it did not seem as much time had gone by. The second time flew by, and the third time amazed everyone. It felt like a short amount of time for the two minutes we were told it was going to last, even though it turned out to be double.

This was kind of mind blowing, and lead me to be curious about how fast longer amounts of time would go by like this. I may try for ten to twenty minutes by myself, or with someone if I can find someone to do this with. From what I have observed, the time should feel like longer than just a few minutes but go by much faster than expected.

This reminds me of the time capsule side plot from Dragon Ball Z, but that's a different topic for a different time.

I have done this many times before, however since this concept of Vipassana was introduced I have spent many more bus rides sitting in scilence. I have a marked point, right as we leave the school property, where I close my eyes. I sit forward, in the most comfortable state I can considering the bus seat, avoid movement, and just wait to feel the bus stop. I have noticed I note when we get to definitive spots; such as hard corners, hills, and stops; but the travel time between these just disappear. It is very relaxing, and gives me time to think. I'm not sure how much more or less I think in this time though, considering my thoughts are not at the front of my consciousness always through this time.

The result of just not speaking for an extended amount of time has occurred to me many times. During one day of school last year, I did not speak from the first bell to the last bell. Several people were doing it in support of children who did not get to speak (or something like that). It supported the recognition of children in poverty. I saw it as a fun opportunity, and it was. Shortly into the day I noticed my thoughts felt, almost, less cluttered. I wouldn't say they are cluttered now, but they seemed more focused. There were less background thoughts and more on what was present at the time.

My vision felt a bit different also. Everything seemed a little bit more in tune, along with my hearing. What I heard was.. somehow different? It is hard to describe. The only phrase I could match to it was the concept that my senses were heightened slightly. All of this has happened to me after listening to music for a long amount of time and not interacting with anyone verbally. I enjoy the odd difference, even if I can't put my finger on what it is exactly.

After the ten day experience, it is said that your senses are ever so heightened that you can feel the air move over your upper lip as you breath through your nose. I think this is a bit expected, considering a large amount of time is put aside to meditation that focuses on your breath. I want to try this some time, but I don't think I will ever get to it. I don't feel like I have the time, and the free time I have I wish to put toward something even if it may seem pointless to someone else. Perhaps when I am older and have the opportunity to do so I will try this. I may try it for just a few days over the Winter break, even if it involves only avoiding speaking. I may avoid the use of the computer, I would like to interact with people during this time but it may be difficult to do so with the majority of the people who I would do so anyways.

As the few people who are following me are aware, the quaint of my posts has diminished a huge amount. My last couple of posts have been put up only on inspiration for my Digital Media or Psychology class. Marks are nice, I enjoy getting good marks. Here's just one more example of me putting something onto my blog for marks. As I always say, I would wish to get back into Blogging a bit, but I don't think that is going to happen. I've gotten into playing a few games that have taken up my free time at home. In not all that long the weather will start to warm up again around my town and I will be more social along with that.

The Corporation Reply

In my Digital Media class we watched a documentary called 'The Corporation'. We also discussed some themes in it in my Psychology class. Here's what I have to say.

First of all, this documentary exposes how in depth corporation has nudged it's way into our society. No matter where you go, you will find it. It is everywhere, and it started off as a good idea. As so many good ideas start, they become exploited though. A corporation is a business, or group of businesses that act as a person. They act as an actual living human being, however though some legal issues and reasoning, they exist only for their own well being. A corporation may do what ever it wishes, as long as it is beneficial to itself and legal; well it should be legal. The actions a corporation takes are not always legal.

I do not think that the problem is as bad as it use to, and I suspect that there may be less of an issue in Canada (though that may just be my own biased thinking), however there have been cases where documents have been leaked to the public that the owners of these corporations did not want to be let out. Documents stating that what has been advertised is not true, and in many cases what is the truth is not even ethical. The example given in the documentary we watched was of dairy products advertised to have no antibiotics in them. This was far from the case. The dairy cows were being given a hormone to increase the amount of milk they produced. If the idea of an animal over producing what it should make natural is not enough, this caused more problems than awkwardness in walking. The increased milk production lead to infections that caused the milk to become tainted with blood and puss. To counter this the cows were given huge amounts of antibiotics, something that is passed into the milk. These cows were producing huge volumes of milk, tainted with not just blood and puss (less after the antibiotics) but antibiotics that can be harmful to humans directly and indirectly. It's a good thing that corporal secrets are leaked sometimes.

Back to the corporation, and it's legal standing as a human. It is just my opinion, but that is ridiculous. The purpose of this was so the owners could not be directly harmed, however the company itself could receive harm. This is much better than the owners being harmed, in the owners opinions. I don't know how the concept of a corporation came to be, but once a person is created it cannot be terminated by legal standings unless it does something deserving of capital punishment. It can be charged, it can be fined, but it will exists as long as the owners need it to. This immortal being has the ability to do what ever a normal person would, however with the bonus of phenomenal amounts of money.

Lets take some attention away from the company itself, and look more to the owners and high ranking members or employee's of these entities. They get payed a huge amounts of money, due to the businesses being so large. The large amounts of money being created is expected due to scaling. A child sitting at the side of the road may invest twenty dollars into the ingredients to make lemon-aid. Once this at-home operation sells out there may be a profit of ten dollars, perhaps more if the child knows what he or she is doing. Proportionally, a mom-'n-pa business may invest a few thousand dollars and get a similar 50% profit. This same profit percentage will give a few thousand dollars back. This is enough to grow with however. A simple ten dollar payback will give enough money to get more ingredients, but with a limited growth.

Now consider a company that has this profit margin of half of what it has invested. It invests a given amount of money, and gets the profit. Now it joins with other similar companies, or uses the money to not just expand the individual store, but to create more stores. Soon this one store is found in several communities. If this continues the one store could multiply and create a small economies empire. With the continued expansion or profit, it is expected that some business owners will have the cunning needed to make their business exceptionally profitable. At some point it will be easy to take out some of this profit and put it in your own pocket without damaging the business.

Here comes some corporate greed though. This large company will hire people who are unable to get the best jobs possible. The work does not need much education, so it is easy to obtain also. The working class; under the control of the rich class who controls the company-now-empire, now-corporation; is payed a very low wage. Often only enough to live off, with few luxuries.

How is this fair though? It would be understandable to pay low wages if the company is small, but if the head of the corporation is making enough money to add a wage increase to everyone who is under him or her and not notice a dent in their salary, shouldn't there be more payed out? The result is the same as it has been for hundreds of years, initially becoming overly predominate in the futile age. You start in the working class, you die in the working class. You can change social and economic classes, but chances are you won't.

There is so much that could be looked at regarding monetary values alone, but who else pays? Big business has gained a reputation for damaging the surroundings around it, and even worse, the areas away from it. The items that are created, are done so in far off lands where labor is cheaper due to poverty being in place already. The individuals in poverty may see this to be a great opportunity to get some money, but they will quickly find that working with toxic chemicals, having their environment polluted and the animals and plants around them becoming sick also leads to them to become sick. Have you ever considered how so many items cost so little at many large stores?

As already stated, the initial collection and processing of the ingredients to create this low priced item are obtained in parts of the world struck with poverty. To lower the price the waste is simply dumped instead of dealt with in an ecological process. This taxes the environment, so the rich corporation deity does not need to pay. Once the item is made, it will be shipped to a first world country as many who are reading this will be living in. The item is sold for little because it has cost little to make. To avoid raising the price any higher the workers are payed little, and they are not given the benefits that they should often.

What is the solution to this? Well we could just let the resources run out so that this model falls apart, but I don't think we will have time to do that. Instead there should be a redistribution of wealth.

Instead of the big money, big business, big corporation leaders being payed so much for management they should pay the workers more. This has been tried before, and it has been found that if the workers want to be at work; if they are payed enough, given what they need, respected, and put into positive environments; productivity goes up. Everyone wins? I think so. I think it's okay for the people in charge to take a slightly larger share, but not enough to put everyone else in it into the lower ranks of our society.

There needs to be more filtering of this also. More regulation to ensure it happens. There are systems in place, but they are not enough. Why not make a couple more jobs to employ those who are not? Everyone loves when more jobs are made. What if those jobs made were to make sure that everyone who has a job, is doing it the best they can due to the fact they are in the best environment they could be.

Friday, November 19, 2010

This was another topic that was brought up in my Digital Media and Psychology class. We weren't told to write about it, but I thought I would anyways. I don't have all that much to say.

I'm not sure when the use of credit become popularized, however it is everywhere now. The ability to pay for something before you actually pay for it is very inviting. I know this from experience. I've never used any form of credit through a plastic card, though many times I've found that having a friend buy something so I may pay them back later is a lot easier than parting with my money directly.

I think I may have slight attachment issues to some items, and money being one of them. I know it is no use if it not spent and I am not saving up for anything in particular. I just don't like to spend it. I don't have a reason to spend it yet. I'm sure once I'm living out of my parents house my ideals will change because I will have a need to spend money. At the moment I can live without it, and find entertainment without it. I always wonder why people complain there isn't anything to do in my town, and many times I've heard there is lots to do but only if you have money. I know I can go out with some friends and have a great time for free at any time. The use of credit allows that entertainment to be found anywhere that may charge for it.

Why not pay later, if you can put responsibility aside and deal with it later. Procrastination is over used by our generation, I'm decently one of those who abuses the concept.

Although, using credit is not a bad thing in itself. If used properly, it builds up your credit rating. I'm not sure how that works entirely, but I know a high credit rating is a good thing. The problem with credit, even more than it's convince, is its interest.

If you put money in the bank, it will grow due to interest. If you put debt in the bank, it will grow due to interest. The more you use your credit card, without paying it off, the more it grows. The interest is also compounded. This is considered a good thing in banking, for if you are in the black (positive) your interest creates more interest. If you are in the red (debt) your debt creates more debt. Even if you use your credit card for small purchases, it will add up. Not paying off your credit card is a terrible event and the credit card companies know this. They love you being in debt.

If you are in debt, you may be able to make a minimal payment. That's great. They get money flowing into their pockets continuously. As long as you are making the minimal payment only, and your interest will keep compiling.

I might finish this later, I might not. If anything I just wanted to kill time in Digital Media. I didn't really want to be here today, but I showed up and stayed most of the time anyways. Now it is time for lunch.

Thursday, November 18, 2010

In my Digital Media class we watched part of the documentary "Flow." We didn't watch all that much however I've seen this several times before (well twice, maybe three times within the past two years) and I was expecting to remember more of it. I'm sure I can find 500 words though.

It's unheard of how polluted so much of the worlds water is. There is so little fresh water as it is, for the majority of the worlds water is in the ocean. Saline and all, not so great to drink. Industrialism has poisoned so much of the water supplies in third world countries leaving no drinkable water. They have no choice but to drink it however.

You can live without love but you can't live without water.

The problem is not only extended to third world countries, for water pollution can be found everywhere. It may be considered worse in some aspects in the more developed world. In the water of many major cities there are trace amounts of pharmaceuticals, rocket fuel, I'm sure a lot more but that's all that comes to mind at the moment. Tap water is avoided in many cases, for consumption at least. Many of the chemicals are absorbed through the skin to make things worse. Simple bathing could be slowly loading you up with some heavy drugs.

For those who avoid tap water, and drink bottled water the story is not all that much different. Bottled water is not regularized. There is no standard to meet, no major screening of the water, there is only one person who is responsible for any standards and they also have the responsibility of several other actives. There have been cases where people have set up wells in the middle of parking lots and sold the water from that in bottles. In Toronto a large water company got busted for selling tap water, strait from the tap pretty much. Just stuck in a bottle, given a label, and shipped off. The plastic also may leak chemicals into the water.

So what does this all mean for us? Us being my peers on the most part. We live in beautiful British Columbia and don't need to worry about water pollution very much. From what I've heard, BC may have the best water in the world. At times it isn't that good. As for pollution, I'm sure it's around, however we have so many fresh, clean lakes there isn't all that much to worry about I suppose. I know around the area I live, we are surrounded by lakes. They are almost all accessible by dirt road at the least though, which I find worry-some. There is a fair amount of logging in the area, especially if you take the roads that take you to the lakes. All the logging can't be good for our last perfect water supply?

I've been told that tap water tastes terrible (and it may, depending on the area) however I think bottled water tastes much worse. I avoid drinking it as much as I can, and on the rare occasion where I must the only thought that will come to mind is how it tastes like plastic. The flavor is not actually plastic but I associate it to be. The water tastes bad. It's simple as that. There's something within the process of water sitting on a plastic bottle that does something to it and I don't want to be loading my body with chemicals at such a young age. I may not worry so much if I was much older, however that isn't the case for a very long time. I suspect by the time I am of that age plastic will be much less of a problem.

Everyone seems to be shying away from plastic, or at least the idea of it. I haven't seen any evidence of it disappearing much.

And since I am already on the topic of plastic water bottles I think I will make a note at the price of it. It is ridiculous. How much does it cost for a liter of gas? Something around 1.10 Canadian currency in my town. I'm not sure, but I've seen it around this price. How much does it cost to buy a 750ml bottle of water? 1.50, sometimes more. In larger quantities the water is more affordable per volume of water; but the point is water costs more than gas.

The price of water is only going to go up. In our natural water cycle the water used is always returned to the cycle, although human intervention has pushed it out of this. There is more water being used than what is being put back. There is a continued demand for more water, with less water available. According to capitalism the more demand, the more price.

Eventual we may run out of oil to make plastic bottles. The price of oil will continue to rise due to this resource being limited. The problem of water running out is less of a concern because it will always be there. It is just being used. If the world continues as it is now eventual some of the flawed systems that have been created will become critical flawed and they will collapse. Maybe some large dams will brake, freeing the water they hold?

I'm not against the use of dams to create power, but it is just one more feature adding to the stress of water. The grand cannon was carved out by the Colorado River, however it is going to stay as it is with much less change as there should be for a very long time. The river is held back by one of the largest dams in the world. This is holding back a fair amount of water, much of it is being taken out of the river for the near by cities. What about the other large bodies of water?

Well there is the ocean, where all water gets to eventually. It is salty and unpleasant to drink though. We must wait for it to evaporate and then it rains down from the sky, in the form of rain usually. It can be hail, or snow (we just got much more snow than we are use to.. I dislike it), but I'm pretending that doesn't exist for the current time.

The pollution in the atmosphere may mix with the falling water to create an acidic rain that damages the environment. It is not acidic to the point that it is not fit for human consumption, but after some time it may eat away at paint and plants.

This rain flows into river, on the most part, where it should be filtered naturally. I'm sure a lot of it is, though if you were to go down to any river around any larger city you will probably find a lot of packaging. Food rapers loves to collect in and around water bodies. I'm sure that isn't the greatest thing for it.

The ocean is no better, if anything I'm sure there's a lot more pollution within the ocean. We can't drink that water in the first place so I won't go into it much however it is easy to see that all of the water cycle is corrupted. The negative factors in it may not be found everywhere in the world, but water has a habit of getting around.

- Bugworlds-- Oh, how I dislike forced writing due to topics that do not interest me much. Writing without inspiration often not so great in quality or quantity.

Thursday, November 11, 2010

Today is Remembrance Day, or as I've mistakenly said several times 'Novemberance Day.' It's a day for us to look back and remember those who have fallen for us, to remember why we are a free nation, and to reflect on everything.

I'm just going to put a note in here that I'm sorry if I offend anyone by this post. If you have very strong feelings around Remembrance Day, or the other topics described such as war and death in the media, there is a chance that some of my opinions may be considered offencive. I doubt that this will happen, however it is better to be safe than sorry and put a disclaimer in anyways. Even if you do have strong feelings around these topics, you may enjoy reading my thoughts about them. I do not intend on offending anyone, it is your choice to read this.

I'm grateful for what the troops who have fallen in battle have done for us, and for those who lived through the strife. If it wasn't for them we may be in such a terrible situation. So why is it that I really don't care?

Now that statement shouldn't be taken at face value, but to be honest I am not very moved by all of this. I've been debating why this may be the case and a class discussion about this (that me and a couple other people continuously encouraged to go on as it was dieing down; Vortex-B seemed to want to get to what he wanted to show the class but it was a good class conversation) in my Psychology class figured it out on the most part. There are a few aspects to it.

First of all, it is an alien concept to me. War that is. I have never experienced war. I have never been greeted at the door to be told that a loved one of mine has passed away. I have never come close to the horror of war.

I have had family in the war, but the only affect this has had on me has been a few stories. I can recall a vivid scene painted in my mind as my Mother told me a story of her father who was in a tank. If you would like to know this story, please don't hesitate to ask. At the moment I will keep it off the interblag. I have no memories of my Mother's father (who I call this because in my mind he is not my Grandpa necessarily. My Grandpa is the grandpa who I know and interact with. I wrote about my Grandpa in the last post actually) for he died when I was three or four. The only memory I have related to him that does not involve me being told of him or viewing a picture is actually my earliest memory. I may describe it in another post. Some of my uncles were also in the war. I don't know when I found this out, I don't know if they fought in it or were just in the reserve. I'm not sure their involvement, I just know they were involved somehow. I don't hear much about it from them, and I have no reason to ask. To be honest it does not interest me all that much. If someone brings up the topic I will definitely continue the conversation but I cannot see myself bringing it up myself.

On top of this the war (I don't know why I am referring to 'the war' as the war, because I know Remembrance Day is related to all the wars Canadian troops have fought in... is it only Canadian troops? Is Remembrance Day a Canadian event? Wow, I may of just realized how little I know about this day to start off with. I'm sure this may add to my apathy towards it) ended before I was born (also I keep thinking of 'the war' to be WW2). There has been the peace keeping mission in Afghanistan, and a few others I'm sure but I am not very aware of them, but there has been no war in my lifetime that has affected me.

Still on the topic of war, I think I have been numbed to it a bit. The closest I've been to war has been (misfortunately) through video games. I don't own any first person shooters that are played on X-Box Live, or even my Ps2. I don't play the games that are associated with wars that have passed often. I play Warrock occasionally (I have written about this game before, check back a few posts), and it is a modern war setting but it is not based off any real war. I don't think this makes it any more or less valid to this point however. The closest I've been to war has been through video games, and to make it worse I enjoyed it. I see them to be just that, games. Just like kids who 'played war' in the backyard with sticks and rocks before electronics were popularized (and even past then, I loved doing that as a younger child; as long as I won), I'm just playing a game. I don't mean any disrespect to those who were in real wars through playing them. I don't want to mock them, upset them, make it look fun. I just want to have a good time playing a game with my friends.

This exposure to simulated death may of numbed me to the death of individuals who I don't know. When I hear on the news that someone has died in a shooting, a car crash, any cause that is not extremely uncommon really; it does not bother me. I know it is a bad thing. I know war is a bad event. I know that someone has died and the people involved in the incident and the family around the people involved may have amazingly traumatizing after affects because of this, but it is not me.

The media has also numbed me to the concept of war and death. With news that Canadian or American soldiers have died overseas, serving our military, fighting for us; it no longer phases me. I have grown up hearing that on the news always. Maybe I was not always told about war, but I may of heard of a gang shooting, a car crash, anything that may happen anywhere in Canada and it will be aired in British Columbia and I may hear about it. There has always been death in the media. There has always been war in the media. There has always been violence in video games.

Back to video games, though I can tell this is getting dragged off topic. What do you think about violence in video games? I think it is there for the entertainment aspect. It is not there to disrupt the minds of our youth (however I do think that ratings should be followed more closely. If a game is rated M for mature it should not be played by anyone under the age of sixteen. This is too off topic though), it is not to encourage violent, illegal acts and lead to riot based anarchy. It is there because people find it entertaining. In a natural environment there will be a natural stimulation around violence in some way or another. Without this natural environment, humans look for other risks or thrills. We will seek out something synthetic to fill this void, and a good first person shooter will fit quite nicely.

I know that the war games I play in my favorite Call Of Duty or Medal Of Honour game are not realistic. I know that when I get shot more than just red jelly appears on my screen for a few moments. I understand the pain that someone's family would experience after finding out some sniper (I love sniping in games) landed a headshot on them does not exist after I get an icon on my screen awarding me for my great aim. With all this said though, I do still think that violent video games along with the media have desensitized me to war. I also cannot relate to what war is and what affects it has on people, because as I said before the games I've described are the closest I've ever gotten. They may be the closest I ever get.

I hope video games are the closest I'll ever get, because maybe the fact I cannot identify with soldier is a good thing. Perhaps (as The Unromantic said during Psychology) the fact that the youth of today (and even the generation above the youth) cannot relate is a sign we are entering a more peaceful age. Maybe we should celebrate the fact we do not know what war is. I know if I end up hanging out with some friends on the weakened I'll mention at some time that I'm declaring it a celebration of Remembrance Day. Not a remembering of it.

Back to Remembrance Day itself. There is the event at the Cenotaph in my town, as there is all across the nation. That is optional, the people who go to it want to go to it (on the most part). Many people who went to it are involved in the ceremonies I know through school (they are in cadets, something I dislike). What about assemblies at school?

There is the required assembly at school, the minimal amount of Remembrance Day one can experience if still in the public school system. I'm not sure what private schools do around this day. Everyone is taken out of class, cutting into our learning time, to listen to people talk and a few songs from the choir and band. There is a minute of silence that allows my mind to continue to wander as it will through the entire event. I cannot pay attention to much of it, because it does not captivate my attention enough to hold onto it for very long. Soon I'm notacing the lights hanging from the ceiling of my gym are moving; but only the lights that are near air vents. Soon I am observing the fact that the only colour that stands out in larger amounts in the crowd in front of me is red. Everyone is wearing a dull colour or red, on the most part. I was wearing red also, along with the individual beside me. We were told to stick with our classes. My teacher told me we were not aloud to wear our hoodies. I was slightly colder than I would like, along with the rest of my class. Everyone else was wearing what they may usually wear except their hats. I took my toque off as well.

I'm glancing back at all I have written about the required assembly, and I'm notacing very little about the assembly itself. I think this is because it is required to attend. The people are there not because they have to be, but because they have no choice. If it was not required, the audiance would be much more meaningful. There would be far less people I'm sure, but the people there would be there because they want to be. Wouldn't that be so much better?

Another honesty moment, I almost wish I skipped it. I'm sure I could of found a way to get out of it and join a few of my friends (no names mentioned, you know who you are) who walked down the street a couple of blocks and watched the History Chanel instead of attending. They got their serving of patriotism through watching a show titled 'Tank Battles' or something like that. It reviews larger battles that happened in WW2 involving tanks. I bet they had a much better time doing that, but I suppose by me attending the assembly I was able to think through all of this a bit more.

Do we even need this day of remembering? I cannot see it being removed from our callender's any time soon. I cannot see it being removed ever, because it would be considered too nontraditional and would be frowned upon. The point I would like to get to is, is anyone going to forget? Is anyone who attends Remembrance Day events because they have lost family or been involved in war themselves, really going to forget about it? Those who have no close interactions with war or people in them (such as me) have nothing to remember. We have stories to recall, and assemblies to sit through.

I do not think anyone is going to forget, just because they did not have their annual reminder. I am not saying Remembrance Day is not a good event, but it should mean more than the fact I get the day off school to play Dance Dance Revolution with some friends and a loved one. For those who it does not mean anything, the day off school or work is all it will ever mean. That could change, but at the moment I'm assuming there will not be something that will cause everyone to suddenly be affected by this day.

And with that all said, I am looking for Remembrance Day next year. 2011/11/11 11:11:11 (hour, minute, second) is going to an amusing moment to live through. I might take pictures.